"Fourth Master~ Why are you here?" Lanqin mumbled the words, her mouth still full of chicken.

"It seems you don't want me to come!" Fourth Master frowned, looking at the table full of dishes, and thought to himself: It seems he is not affected at all and still has an appetite to eat and drink.

"Master, you haven't eaten yet, have you? Please sit down and have a meal with us," Lanqin said, forcing herself to stay alert after swallowing a mouthful of chicken.

Alright, this is your private quarters, your territory, your rules. Without the Fourth Prince's favor, not only will you find it difficult to move an inch, but your future will likely be even more difficult.

Having figured this out, our Comrade Lanqin stopped pretending to be aloof. Seeing that Fourth Master had taken the initiative to come over, she immediately accepted the offer and stopped while she was ahead.

"You think you can serve me your leftovers?" Fourth Master said coldly, but to be honest, he wasn't really angry. The little princess was always carefree, saying whatever came to mind without hiding her feelings. Didn't he seem to have liked her sincerity back then?

"This servant will immediately go and prepare another one for the master. Soon, all the ingredients will be ready," Niu Baoquan replied at the opportune moment.

“There are still many dishes here that haven’t been touched. Why don’t we remove the dishes that have been touched and let them continue eating? Then Chef Niu can make another dish to serve, right?” Lanqin put down her chopsticks, walked up to Fourth Master, pulled his arm, and shook it.

Sigh, only this one could get the master to agree. If it were placed elsewhere, the used table would probably be taken down immediately and replaced with a new one.

"Go down, remove everything that has been used." Fourth Master stared at Lanqin as if she were his prey.

In fact, he hadn't come to her place for the past two weeks, nor had he slept with anyone else; he mostly stayed in the front yard.

Yan Yu was pregnant and suffering from severe morning sickness, so he dared not touch her easily.

The situation with his wife remains the same. He really wanted to give her another legitimate son, but he simply couldn't muster the interest, so how could he possibly give him one?

I've been to Li's place a few times, but I can never recapture the way he used to dote on me; most of the time it's just sleeping.

The Song family, the Wu family, and the Wang family remained the same as before, and he was unlikely to suddenly show them any favor.

Lanqin stared at Fourth Master with a mischievous grin, making him feel embarrassed.

"What are you looking at? I haven't been here for a while, do you not remember what I look like?" In fact, Fourth Master had long since stopped minding Fourteenth Master talking to Lanqin a few more times. The reason he had been cold to her these days was as if he wanted to suppress her spoiled nature. Besides, it was also a kind of self-centered feeling of a man, that is, if I don't pamper you, will you still be so happy?

"Is Your Highness too busy? You haven't come these days. I miss you so much!" Lanqin blinked her big eyes, looking pitiful and endearing, which made our Fourth Master feel quite satisfied.

Cough cough cough~~

The Fourth Prince suppressed his inner smugness, coughed a few times in a deliberately deep voice, and said with a stern face, "These days I've been busy chasing silver for the court and have rarely set foot in the inner courtyard. But here I am, aren't I?"

Damn it, Yan Yu is pregnant already, and this is what you call rarely setting foot in the inner quarters?!

"Master, look how thin you've become. Try this stir-fried dried bamboo shoots with fresh pork, it's delicious." Lanqin picked up a spoon and placed a chopstick on Fourth Master's plate.

"I love this tofu, could you scoop a spoonful for me?" Fourth Master said, pointing to the crab roe tofu placed at the very edge of the table.

"Master, has the Crown Prince's money been returned?" Lanqin asked obediently, scooping a spoonful of tofu for the Fourth Master.

"He's paid it back. Luckily you reminded me to investigate his private assets. I was shocked when I found out. I didn't expect the Crown Prince to have accumulated so much wealth over the years. In any case, he has returned the money owed to the court. With the Crown Prince setting an example, those people have finally started to pay back their money one after another." The Fourth Prince had been on edge these past few days, and he only breathed a sigh of relief after the Crown Prince paid back the money.

"Your Majesty, isn't the Crown Prince's private property excessive? Haven't you investigated it thoroughly?" Lanqin suggested. She remembered that the Crown Prince's first "rebellion" involved the unauthorized manufacture of a large number of weapons and the raising of assassins. Kangxi was furious; he never imagined that the Crown Prince, whom he had personally nurtured, would disobey him behind his back. Of course, that's all hindsight. At that time, the Fourth Prince certainly couldn't have imagined that the Crown Prince would do such things later.

“Each prince has some private property; otherwise, the monthly princely salary alone wouldn’t be enough to support the entire household.” The Fourth Prince disagreed, as he himself owned several estates.

The so-called "Zhuangzi" are just like those in "Dream of the Red Chamber." These Zhuangzi owners leased out their land to larger farming families who specialized in contracting land. Every year, they would pay tribute to the Zhuangzi owners in the form of silver, rice, deer, wild boars, roe deer, or other animals, all of which were agreed upon in advance.

"My lord, I just feel that the Crown Prince has too much private property. Isn't that inappropriate?" Lanqin wished she could say, "You should investigate immediately! The Crown Prince is plotting a rebellion in the future. If you can uncover his secrets now and inform Kangxi as soon as possible, you'll have done a great service!"

But she certainly wouldn't dare to say it. If she did, given Fourth Master's suspicious nature, he would definitely investigate her thoroughly. This was completely contrary to Lanqin's original intention of living a peaceful life as a noblewoman in the inner quarters. So our Comrade Lanqin had no choice but to hold back and not say it.

Sometimes, being a prophet is quite painful~~~

Niu Baoquan brought out the dishes one after another. Fourth Master hadn't eaten at Lanqin's place for a long time and had been craving it. Now that he saw the delicious food in front of him, he didn't care about his image and started to eat heartily with Lanqin.

Su Peisheng and Nianxue took the dishes that had been touched to a side room to eat together. Anyway, Fourth Master had gotten used to not being served meals when he was with Niu Gege, so he was happy to eat with the maids.

"Father-in-law, why hasn't the master come to our South Courtyard these days?" Huanbi suddenly asked.

Nianxue glanced at her, but she also wanted to know why the Fourth Prince had suddenly neglected the princess for so long, so she didn't stop her.

Su Peisheng picked up a piece of eggplant with his chopsticks, glanced at Huanbi, and said, "I don't know about that. You can't guess what your master is thinking, and you certainly can't talk about it to anyone behind his back. This is the first duty of a servant."

Huanbi, feeling rebuffed, lowered her head and started picking up food.

Nianxue stood up, poured a cup of tea, and brought it to Su Peisheng, saying, "Father-in-law, please have some tea. This meal is a bit strong in flavor, so have some tea to soothe your palate."